Since the aging society problem has paid attention recently, the interest on the character of aged peoples and the welfare of aged people such as accommodation, health, culture, leisure etc and the statistic demand thereon has been increased till now. The main cause of death in aging society is chronic degenerative disease not acute infectious diseases which has been the main cause of death long years ago. Especially, the cerebral ischemic disease among the chronic degenerative diseases is very important disease which was recorded as 2nd among the simple causes of death.
Brain stroke is one of the major public health problem in degenerative disease and the mortality rate from stroke is surpassed only by that of heart. The two major categories of stroke are cerebral ischemia and hemorrhage. The former is caused by reduction of blood flow and the latter is caused by bleeding from brain vessels. Reduction of blood flow is occurred by an occlusion in a blood vessel by a blood clot or other things. Ischemic stroke accounts for 80% of all stroke
It has been reported that the cause of damage of brain neuronal cells are the release of excessive excitational neurotransmitter, the production of free radical, the inhibition of protein synthesis, abnormal expression of gene and the activation of immune response etc., however, there has been not yet developed therapeutically effective agent to protect the damage of brain neuronal cells.
t-PA (tissue-plasminogen activator), a sole approved platelet agglutination inhibitor by FDA dissolve the blood agglutination which provides rapid supply of oxygen and glucose. Accordingly, since the drug could not protect neuronal cell directly, it require rapid use and gives rise to hemorrhagic stroke resulting from thinned blood wall in case of over-dose or long-term use because of its property. MK-801, a calcium channel blocker, to effectively inhibit initial calcium influx has been on clinical trial however it has been also dropped to develop further.
Accordingly, there have been needed to try seeking safe and potent natural resources which show treating and preventing effect on the brain diseases through authentic experiments till now.
Oleic acid, a unsaturated fatty acid existed in vivo shows M.W (282.5), m.p. (13.3° C.), b.p. (223° C./10 mmHg), and colorless and greasy liquid. In nature, it existed as main components of plant oils such as olive oil etc and animal oil such as the oil of cow and pig etc. The oil is reproduced from palmitic acid through stearic acid or transformed into linoleic acid in plant. It exists within cell membrane as a linked form with glycerol and ester (glyceride) rather than free form type therein. It has one double bond within one molecule and shows cis-type geometric isomer different from trans-type geometric isomer (elide acid).
There have reported that it has the anticancer-effect (Menendez et al., Annals of Oncology, p 10, 2005), promotes the blood circulation by lowering blood viscosity (Alberts et al, Gerland Publishing, Inc., New York, 1994), the myelination and regeneration of neuronal cells (Medina and Tabernero, J. Physiology, 96, pp 265-271, 2002) till now.
However, there has been no disclosure or suggestion on the neuronal cell protecting activity of oleic acid, especially through animal model test for treating or inhibiting neuronal diseases such as brain stroke till now.
The inventors of the present invention have intensively carried out the scientific investigation concerning pharmacological effects and its mechanism of action of oleic acid. As a result of the investigation, the inventors have discovered that it shows novel pharmacological effects, especially, its preventing or treating activity for functional disorder of sensory neuron and they have finally completed the present invention.